Regardless of the mode of delivery, represent a guide to the
relative teaching time and student effort required to
successfully achieve a particular competency/module. This may
include not only scheduled classes or workplace visits but also
the amount of effort required to undertake, evaluate and
complete all assessment requirements, including any
non-classroom activities.

Pre-requisites and Co-requisites

None

Course Description

This course will enable you to understand how you develop marketing and promotional mix within an organisation.

You will also understand how to adjust the marketing mix when new marketing opportunities have been identified within your organisation.

1.1. Identify key characteristics of products or services and estimate their significance to the market
1.2. Review pricing policy and analyse pricing variables to determine their effect on demand
1.3. Analyse promotional methods to determine their importance to marketing outcomes
1.4. Review channels of distribution and estimate their significance in relation to marketing outcomes
1.5. Identify and analyse level of customer service provision to determine its significance to marketing outcomes
1.6. Identify potential customer base and key pressure points for success
1.7. Analyse and test the effect of the components of marketing mix on each other, and establish their relative importance to customer base

This course is supported by a comprehensive set of online resources through myRMIT

myRMIT is where you can access information for:

Course Guide - digital version

Lectures and slides - a full list

Readings -prescribed and suggested

Assessments - comprehensive instructions

Announcements - these will be posted regularly on the myRMIT site and it is important that you regularly check these

Overview of Assessment

Assessment may incorporate a variety of methods including in-class exercises, problem-solving exercises, assignments, group or individual projects, presentations and written or practical tests, as well as homework activities.

Other activities may be workplace-based or simulated work practices. These may include the production of technical requirements documents, direct observation of workplace practices and the presentation of a portfolio of evidence. This portfolio may include documents, photographs, video and/or audio files.

Students are advised that they are likely to be asked to personally demonstrate their assessment work to their teacher to ensure that the relevant competency standards are being met. Students will be provided with feedback throughout the course to check their progress.

Assessment Tasks

THERE ARE TWO ASSESSMENTS FOR THIS COURSE

In the team assessment each team member will be marked individually. You will be assessed from observation and peer feedback against several criteria including:
• Did you attend scheduled meetings, and on time?
• Did you meet deadlines for your allocated contributions?
• Did you accept constructive criticism and act on it?
• Did you contribute and share ideas and research?
• Did you participate in team activities and successfully complete all the tasks allocated to you?
• Did you treat other team members with respect?
• Did you contribute proactively to the team, or were you only reactive to others’ suggestions and directions?

Various methods for individual evaluation will be used including contribution to wikis, discussion boards, team meetings, emails, communication systems as well as face to face questioning. All team members are expected to be competent in all aspects of the subject matter so that, even if you accept responsibility for one particular aspect of the assessment, you must know and understand all areas of the assessment

NOTE:

If any of the group members leave the group, the remaining group members must complete the work without any concession and compensation.

In presentations, all members of the group must be able to deliver all of the presentation, no reading notes to be used so you must know your subject

Groups will be called randomly to present, so be on time. If a group member is not there when the group is called the group will present without that member. A missing/late group member will not be assessed and will need Special Consideration to be assessed

Task 1 – In-class closed book test - individual
A closed book test of 90 minutes duration, run in the week 6, covering content studied in Chapters 1-5. It will consist of questions with short essay answers and designed to test your underpinning knowledge of marketing concepts covered in the first part of the semester. It will be conducted in the class controlled environment.

Task 2 - Major group assignment (Marketing Plan)During this semester students will be working in teams (4-5 people) to develop a marketing plan for a product or service of a given Australian brand.

The marketing plan will be for a specific product or service rather than a company, as a company may have several products each requiring individual plans. It will be a product or service that is easy to research, one that has been written about regularly in marketing magazines or one that students have access to the information via a personal contact. No direct contact is allowed with organisations unless students have a prior personal or professional relationship. All research should otherwise be desk research, observation and educated guesses.

Students will be developing the marketing plan in three separate stages: in Stage 1. students will conduct a research, make an analysis, and prepare a detailed presentation of their findings. In Stage 2. students will develop a specific marketing strategy and marketing mix and present them in the class. In Stage 3, students will write a report.

Any individual product or service must be developed in line with the firm’s overall mission and objectives. All Body Shop products, for instance, must be environmentally friendly, all 3M products reflect the firms commitment to leading edge technology and the Foxtel vs Optus Vision battle depicts these firms’ high risk for high reward business vision.

By including the firm’s mission and overall objectives at the start of the planning process we are establishing the framework within which our product will operate in. We are also ensuring that our product will play its part in assisting the firm achieve its overall objectives.

2. The Situation Analysis

The purpose of the Situation Analysis is to describe and analyse the firm’s current position in the market place. The Situation Analysis attempts to answer the question “where are we now?” by taking a ‘snapshot’ of the current situation and explaining not only what is happening in this marketplace but why, who and what are the key players, forces and dynamics that drive it.

The Situation Analysis also helps to identify key leverage points or significant areas of strength that cam be used to improve the products market position. The situation analysis is carried out in three stages:

Duration: 30-45 minutes Team leaders should submit visual aids such as power point slides, prezi etc electronically via Blackboard.

Students will be given a product (goods or service), and will prepare a Situation Analysis of the environment which the product operates in.

As a guide you should include the following:

1. Company Mission.
The overall guiding vision of the company, or what this company stands for.

2. Company Objectives.Corporate objectives to be achieved over the next 12 months. (These are different to product objectives - refer to the Assignment description if you are still unsure what is required).

These objectives help to set the scene that your product operates within. They will show whether the company is looking to grow or consolidate, be innovative and take risks or be reactive and conservative in its approach.

3. Market overview.Describe and analyse the market place and the trends and forces operating within it. Include analysis such as:

• Definition of the market or category

You need to very clearly define and describe the market your product operates in. The broader the definition of your market the more competitors there are likely to be and the narrower the definition the less scope there is for market segmentation and finding new users for your product.
Ask yourself whether you are analysing the ‘confectionary market’ or only the Chocolate Bar’ category. If you are concentrating on the Chocolate Bar category , it is very worthwhile to show where it fits in to the overall market. You can do this by describing the confectionary market and defining the various product categories that fit into it, such as, chocolate bars, boxed chocolates, children’s treats (Kinder Surprise), confectionary bags and so on. You could then go on to describe what proportion of the confectionary market it represents and
compare the growth trends of the total market and this particular category. For instance, it would be significant to know that the chocolate bar market represents 25% of the confectionary market and although the confectionary is stagnant, Chocolate Bars are still growing at 7-8% per annum. (You should also specify the types of products included in your definition of the market/ category).

• Market Size - What is the size of the market? Quantify the size of the market in volume (000’s cases/ kilos) and/ or value ($000) terms.

• Market Potential - Is this a growth market? Can you estimate next years growth rate? Is this an attractive market to be in? What stage of the life cycle is this market in?

• Market Structure - What is the competitive nature of this market? Is it a monopoly? Oligopoly?

• Trends - Analyse the macro environmental trends effecting this market place. Include only those issues that are relevant to your market. Consider the demographic, economic, natural, cultural, technological and political/ legal trends.

4. Competitors

Consider both direct and indirect competitors in your analysis.

Include information in your analysis that helps to identify not only what your competitors are doing but how they think, how innovative they are and how they may respond to a competitive threat. You should consider issues such as:

market share

corporate culture

strategic alliances

international links

financial strengths

marketing expertise

innovativeness and so on ..

You may even like to do a SWOT analysis on your key competitors.

5. Segmentation and Buyer Behaviour.

In this section of the plan you are trying to understand the various customer segments in the marketplace.
You should attempt to divide the market into discrete segments and describe these segments using a segmentation table. (this is covered in the textbook and in class!)
Your aim is to build ‘profiles’ of each segment to aid in our understanding of what, where, when, why and how often these customers buy products in this market.
You may even identify a segment that is currently not being served and in doing so you have uncovered a major opportunity.
Discuss in this section the type of buying process involved in your market place, how decisions are made, who influences these decisions and any other issues that are important to the decision making process.

6. Internal Analysis

The internal analysis is a review of the product’s performance and current marketing strategy.
The purpose of this review is to establish how well the current marketing strategy is working to achieve the objectives set for the product. It is a review of performance against targets such as market share, sales, profitability and so on. It also evaluates specific product, price, promotion and distribution strategies to identify areas of strength and weakness for the firm.
Identify the firm’s existing strategies and analyse their effectiveness, with a view to developing new refined strategies. Your analysis will also help to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for the SWOT analysis.

7. SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The SWOT analysis is a summary of the external and internal analyses, highlighting the critical issues that must be addressed by the marketing plan. When the SWOT analysis is completed, the firm has a clear idea of its:

• Strengths What do we do better than competitors? - What advantages do we have over competitors?

• Weaknesses - In what areas do we need to improve marketing mix in order to be more competitive?

• Opportunities - What new opportunities exist in the market place for our product?

Threats - Can we anticipate any threats to our business from the external environment that may challenge or weaken our position?

Stage 2

Stage 2 concentrates on the planning phase of the marketing cycle. It addresses:

Detailed implementation program identifying what will be done, who is responsible, Marketing Budgets and deadlines.

6. Control Program.

Defines how you will monitor your progress, including benchmarks, evaluation procedures, budgets and so on.

7. Samples, Advertisements, Promotional material

You are strongly urged to use your creative energies to produce examples of your product, copies of your proposed advertisements, and any promotional materials that are proposed. These should be prepared and shown in Weeks 15/16 to demonstrate your competencies in a simulated workplace situation

Stage 3

Summary report

Due date: Week 16

Each team will produce a summary report of stages 1 & 2. The report should be 800-1000 words long, written by the whole team, and team leader should submit the report electronically via Blackboard on behalf of all team members accompanied by authorship statements from each team member

Assessment Matrix

REQUIRED SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE
This section describes the skills and knowledge required for this unit.

Required skills
• culturally appropriate communication skills to relate to people from diverse backgrounds and people with diverse abilities
• literacy skills to identify market information, to write in a range of styles for different audiences and to interpret requirements
• numeracy skills to interpret testing results and to manage marketing budgets
• organisational and time management skills to design and adjust a marketing mix.

Required knowledge
• key provisions of relevant legislation from all forms of government that may affect aspects business operations, codes of practice and national standards such as:
• anti-discrimination legislation and principles of equal opportunity, equity and diversity
• ethical principles
• marketing codes of practice and conduct such as the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Direct Marketing Code of Practice; Free TV Australia Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice
• privacy laws
• Trade Practices Act
• organisational policies, procedures, products and services
• principles and concepts of marketing such as consumer or buyer behaviour and elements of marketing mix
• statistical techniques.

ASSESSMENT MATRIX

ELEMENT

ASSESSMENT

1. Evaluate each component of the marketing mix

1. In-class test 2. Marketing plan

2. Determine marketing mix for specific markets

2. Marketing plan

3. Monitor and adjust the marketing mix

2. Marketing plan

Other Information

Academic Administration Procedures

Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is your own. It is a form of cheating and is a very serious academic offence that may lead to expulsion from the University. Plagiarised material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including electronic data and oral presentation. Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not appropriately cited. Examples of plagiarism include:
• Copying sentences or paragraphs word-for-word from one or more sources, whether published or unpublished, which could include but is not limited to books, journals, reports, theses, websites, conference papers, course notes, etc. without proper citation;
• Piecing together text from one or more sources and adding only linking sentences;
• Copying or submitting whole or parts of computer files without acknowledging their source;
• Copying a whole or any part of another student’s work; and
• Submitting work as your own that someone else has done for you.
For further information including “Plagiarism (and how to avoid it): Resources for Students” refer to the Plagiarism section of the RMIT Policies, at http://www.rmit.edu.au/governance/policies in the Teaching and Learning Policy section. Penalties include official reprimand, recording of a failure result or expulsion from the University.

Referencing
Students are required to use the Harvard system of referencing for this course
Submissions which do not use the Harvard system of referencing will not be assessed as Not Yet Competent,(NYC), but will penalised in the grading until referencing is correct, Wrong referencing includes using the footnote system instead of the Harvard (author-date) system, no page numbers in references where there is a quote, being unable to use the formula for in-text referencing, using a bibliography instead of a reference list, having no reference list, failing to show where a quote begins and ends, writing out the book title because you don’t know how to use references and not using all elements of the reference citation i.e. surname, initial, date published, title (correctly signified), publisher and place published. Minor errors such as wrong punctuation, a wrong page number or a simple typographical error in a date are not defined as an error.

Submission Requirements
Assessment tasks need to be via electronic submission from the students via MyRMIT and then hard copies (if required by your teacher) handed in during class.

Late Submission ProceduresYou are required to submit assessment items and/or ensure performance based assessment is completed by the due dates.
If you are prevented from submitting an assessment item on time, by circumstances outside your control, you may apply in advance to your teacher for an extension to the due date of up to seven calendar days.

More information: http://www.rmit.edu.au/students/assessment/extension
Form to use: http://mams.rmit.edu.au/seca86tti4g4z.pdf

Where an extension of greater than seven days is needed, you must apply for special consideration. Applications for special consideration must be submitted no later than two working days after the assessment task deadline or scheduled examination.
More information: http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=g43abm17hc9w
Form to use: http://mams.rmit.edu.au/8a5dgcaqvaes1.pdf

Resubmissions:If you are found to be Not Yet Competent in a Course Assessment Task you will be allowed one resubmission only. Your teacher will provide feedback regarding what you need to do to improve and will set a new deadline for the resubmission. The highest grade you will receive if your resubmission is successful is "CAG".
If you are still not meeting the assessment requirements you must apply to your Program manager in writing outlining the steps you will take to demonstrate competence in your course. Your submission will be considered by the Program Team and you will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible.

Adjustments to Assessment
In certain circumstances students may be eligible for an assessment adjustment. For more information about the cirumstances under which the assessment arrangements might be granted please access the following website:
More Information: http://rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=7usdbki1fjf31

You should:
• Ensure that you submit assessments on or before the due date. If your performance in the assessment is affected by unexpected circumstances, you should consider applying for Special Consideration. Information on the process and application forms is available at myRMIT and check links in your Student Diary.
• Always retain a copy of your assessment tasks (hrd copy and soft copy)
• When you submit work for assessment at RMIT University you need to use a cover sheet that includes a declaration and statement of authorship. You must complete and submit an Assessment Record/Cover Sheet with work you submit for assessment, whether individual or group work. On the cover sheet you declare that the work you are presenting for assessment is your own work. You will find the relevant Assessment Record/Cover Sheet on Blackboard.
• Each page of your assessment should include a footer with your name, student number, the title of the assessment, unit code and title and page numbers.

Marking Guide (competency):Vocational Education and Training (VET) is based on current industry needs and the focus on preparing you for the workplace. Because VET courses are informed by practical application of knowledge and skills, they are based on a system known as ‘competency based training’ (CBT). So when you are assessed in VET it is about whether you are competent to do the job, as well as having a firm grasp on the knowledge and skills required to do that job, as opposed to traditional curriculum based education settings that are often based on knowledge retention.
You need to demonstrate you are competent in each element of the unit of competency you are studying. You will receive feedback on each assessment task that will inform you whether you are competent or not and how well you are performing. Once competent in all elements of the unit you pass that unit of competency.

Each assessment task is marked as Competent or Not Yet Competent but not graded until achieving competency across the assessment tasks. We then grade your performance in the unit; this gives you the opportunity to have the level of your performance formally recognized against industry standards and employability skills.

The grading is according to the following criteria:1. LEVEL OF INDEPENDENCE, INITIATIVE, ENTERPRISE AND PERFORMANCE OF WORK TASKWe are looking for a high level of ability to complete all tasks independently as per the specifications as well as demonstrating a high level of initiative in your approach to Establishing and adjusting the marketing mix

2. DEMONSTRATED BREADTH OF UNDERPINNING KNOWLEDGE AND A WILLINGNESS TO CONTINUE LEARNINGWe are looking for depth of understanding of the key concepts and knowledge required in establishing and adjusting the marketing mix. You should be able to demonstrate a thorough understanding of all applicable operational planning principles in all the assessment tasks.

3. TECHNIQUES & PROCESSES, TECHNOLOGY SKILLS AND PROBLEM SOLVING
We are looking for appropriate use of technology to assist in presenting all tasks clearly and suitable for the intended audience. You also need to show an understanding of the kinds of problems that can arise ina marketing situation in a workplace with people and teams and how these might be addressed.

4. WORK ORGANISATION, PLANNING AND SELF MANAGEMENTWe expect to see on-going uploading of information that is relevant to the unit, full utilisation of Blackboard as per course requirements and timely submission of all required assessment tasks.

5. COMMUNICATION, PEOPLE NETWORKING, LANGUAGE AND INTERPERSONAL SKILLS AND TEAMWORK
We expect to see contributions to relevant discussions and scheduled collaborative sessions. In addition your tasks should demonstrate a very good understanding of strategies for a collaborative approach to establishing the marketing mix in the workplace.

Marking Guide (Grading)
After achieving competency we then grade your performance in the unit; this gives you the opportunity to have the level of your performance formally recognised against industry standards and employability skills.
Final Grades Table:
CHD Competent with High Distinction
CDI Competent with Distinction
CC Competent with Credit
CAG Competency Achieved – Graded
NYC Not Yet Competent
DNS Did not Submit for assessment